<p>This group represents a predicted bifunctional argininosuccinate lyase/acetyltransferase from Gammaproteobacteria. </p><p>Bifunctional enzymes permit the direct channelling of intermediates between catalytic centres involved in consecutive reactions in a pathway, offering an efficient means of directing the flow of catalysis and protecting intermediates from degradation [<cite idref="PUB00014557"/>]. Both the argininosuccinate lyase (<db_xref db="EC" dbkey="4.3.2.1"/>) activity and the acetyltransferase (<db_xref db="EC" dbkey="2.3.1"/>) activity are involved in arginine biosynthesis in bacteria, where argininosuccinate lyase catalyses the conversion of N-(L-arginino)succinate to fumarate and L-arginine [<cite idref="PUB00014560"/>].</p>